No strong network of NGOs working for women

KOZHIKODE: Social activist and renowned dancer Mallika Sarabhai said, unlike Gujarat, the state lacks a network of NGOs working for women. The danseuse was in the city on Wednesday as part of the gender awareness campaign being organised in the state by the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC).“The network of NGOs for women in Kerala is more sparser  than in Gujarat. There are hundreds of NGOs working for women in Gujarat. In every village, there is at least one NGO working for women. If a woman gets molested in a village, she does not have to go very far to get a helping hand in doing what she needs to do and this is our greatest strength in Gujarat. Such a network of NGOs is lacking in Kerala. Besides, among women in the 30-50 age group in Kerala, I don’t see many who are vocal about   fighting for gender. Even on the national scene, there are a lot of women from Gujarat fighting for women’s rights and fighting for reservation of women in Parliament. I don’t see that happening from Kerala. That is one of the things we are trying to revitalise here through the ongoing initiative,” Sarabhai said.The video programme with the core theme on gender awareness initiated by the KSWDC in association with Mallika Sarabhai is currently underway in 40 colleges across the state in which a documentary titled ‘Unarthupattu’ (the song of awakening), guiding young women in dealing with sensitive issues like sexual exploitation, cyber crimes, stress out of education and depression, premarital guidance and gender issues, is being screened in colleges as part of the programme.“The programme aims to support the adolescent women to come up with their thoughts rather than suppressing them.  We aim to trigger a movement among young women of the state to actually take a position in the society that any healthy society needs its women to take,” said Mallika Sarabhai. She added that men have to partner women in this endeavour and can now do the programme in mixed colleges of the state. “We have to sensitise parents about the issues that their children can’t talk to them. Girls say that parents are not ready to listen to them.If we can sensitise some of the parents and teachers they can become agents to talk to other parents and students,” Sarabhai said. Over a hundred students from five colleges of the district attended the session in Kozhikode on Wednesday. The screening of the documentary was followed by an interactive seminar led by Mallika Sarabhai herself.According to her, the interaction with students was ‘overwhelming’ and ‘heart breaking’.